Summary of “Surely you are joking,

Mr. Feynman” by Ralph Leighton

Adventures of a curious character

Written by Bookey
About the book
This book is a biography of Richard P. Feynman, a
Nobel Prize winner in Physics. It revolves around
various adventures that occurred in Feynman's life,
with no preaching anecdotes, just continuous
laughter. Let's take a look at the life of a gifted
physicist who had mastered calculus at the age of
13, and assisted in the development of a nuclear
weapon at the age of 24.
About the author
Ralph Leighton was the Feynman’s friend’s son,
and Feynman’s pandeiro playing partner. He was
responsible for recording these interesting stories,
and subsequently organizing them into this book.
Richard P. Feynman, the protagonist, was a great
physicist who appeared in the scene after Albert
Einstein. In 1965, he won the Nobel Prize in
Physics and contributed immensely to the physics
community through his research and the theories he
developed.
Chapter 1: Overview
Hi, welcome to Bookey. Today, we will unlock the
book “Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!” This
book is about the interesting life of Nobel Prize
winner Richard P. Feynman. Richard P. Feynman
was acknowledged by many as the most intelligent
scientist after Einstein. However, Feynman’s life
was not all about physics. His hobbies ranged from
cracking open safes and making bets, to playing
pandeiro. Though surprising, this is true. This
man, whom Bill Gates and Steve Jobs regarded as
an idol, had a mischievous personality and was
always full of passion. Since childhood, Feynman
was unconventional by nature. The first time the
wife of the Dean of the Princeton Graduate College
met him, she exclaimed, "Surely you're joking, Mr.
Feynman!” This book has an interesting origin;
the content was dictated by Feynman to his friend's
son while they were playing the pandeiro together.
Feynman personally participated in the book’s
production, while keeping language style consistent
with his own speaking habits. Feynman was born
full of curiosity for everything. With his father's
guidance and education, he had a strong desire for
knowledge since childhood. Although most of the
book centers on Feynman's jokes and mischief,
between the lines we can see the traces of
Feynman's genius. This book revolves around
the anecdotes that occurred in Feynman's life
starting from his childhood. He grew up with a
persistent personality, being determined to
thoroughly figure out all that he was interested in.
In addition, he did not study for usefulness, but
instead simply for fun. Even when he later joined
the "Manhattan Project" that created the atomic
bomb, Feynman continued on in his pranking ways.
Furthermore, Feynman's persistent personality are
also manifested in his life principles which were
non-negotiable. As for physics, his love for the
subject ran so strong that even when he was
discussing with Einstein, he would often vigorously
express his own opinions. How did Feynman
make ordinary life magnificent and exciting? Next,
we will go through the wonderful life of Feynman,
a curious character with a mischievous nature, in
four parts: Part one: a vigorous curiosity; Part
two: a young mind that never gave up; Part three:
the physicist who “fiddled around”; Part four: a
principled life.
Chapter 2: A vigorous curiosity
Many people have recognized Feynman as a genius,
but not many know that Feynman's IQ was only
120. Though Feynman’s IQ was a bit higher than
that of an average person, in comparison with
Einstein's IQ of 165, and Newton's of 195,
Feynman's IQ was not even close to being among
the highest for scientists. How did Feynman
eventually become a genius in the eyes of the
public? In fact, this had to do with his character.
Feynman's vigorous curiosity was the most
indispensable factor in making him a physicist. But
did you know that his curiosity about the root
causes of everything on earth was inspired by a
bird? When he was young, one of his classmates
pointed at a bird and asked him: "Do you know
what kind of bird this is?" Feynman shook his
head, and the classmates sneered at him, saying:
"Your father doesn’t teach you anything”. In fact,
his father had told Feynman that this kind of bird
was called "Spencer’s warbler”. In Portuguese it’s a
"Bom Da Peida" and in Chinese it’s a "
Chung-long-tah". This bird could have countless
names in different languages, but even if you knew
the names of this bird in all the languages of the
world, you could know absolutely nothing about it.
Therefore, Feynman learned the truth that many
adults did not understand at his very early age:
knowing the name of something did not mean
knowing something. Feynman learned to think
about the actual meaning of things that he
encountered from his father. This also became the
source of his curiosity. Feynman said that he liked
to study physics because he felt curious about
everything. He enjoyed observing various
phenomena and was keen to find out the causes
behind them. From an early age, Feynman's
father was always able to resolve doubts Feynman
had, and also encouraged Feynman's curiosity in
order to help him grow. Of course, in many cases
these things might not have any substantive
significance, but Feynman did not think so. For
him, interest had the highest significance. When
Feynman was a little boy in a highchair, his father
used to play dominoes with him. At the time,
Feynman thought it was just for fun, but his father
taught him elementary mathematics through the
arrangements of the tiles. Although Feynman didn't
understand this at all at the time, he gradually
became more sensitive to these arrangements and
numbers. When Feynman began to read, he read
the Encyclopedia Britannica, and found a
description of dinosaurs that said, "This dinosaur is
25 feet high, and its head is 6 feet across”. His
father stopped and explained this description to
Feynman attentively. He would let Feynman
imagine how big this dinosaur was based on
objects that existed in real life. His father guided
Feynman to understand the size by explaining that
the head of the dinosaur could reach the window on
the second floor of their house, with the head being
wider than the window. In this way, little Feynman
was able to acutely understand just how big
dinosaurs were. The reason why Feynman's
curiosity did not disappear as he grew up can also
be attributed to his father. Feynman's father was a
person who was always curious and passionate
about everything. At the age of 26, Feynman went
to the park and watched a live performance
conducted by a mind reader. This mind reader
could figure out others’ names without them
uttering a word, and could also guess the colors of
people’s pocket notebooks. Feynman knew that
this had to be a trick that the mind reader played,
but how did he do it? Feynman's curiosity was
again ignited. Feynman shared his doubts with his
father. After hearing it, his father laughed, and told
Feynman that he had played this kind of trick too
when he was a child, but as hadn't practiced it for
many years, he had to go and find out. So, his
father invented a story to let him meet the
mindreader backstage and ask him. Half an hour
later, his father came out with a smile on his face.
Feynman's curiosity was practically suffocating
him, and he couldn't wait to ask his father for the
answer. His father told him that the mind reader
passed the audience’s personal information with his
assistant through secret codes: when an assistant
was running around through the audience, they
would pass on the secret codes to each other, and
the mindreader was then left in charge of
mystifying the audience with the trick. To
Feynman's surprise, the mindreader actually
explained all the secret codes to his father. From
these stories, we can see that his father's teaching
was a very significant influence for Feynman's
growth. It is worth mentioning that Richard
Feynman's sister Joan Feynman was also a
physicist. Through this, it is clear that their father’s
method of raising science-minded children was
quite successful.
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